What Happened To Jazz? "What happened to Wynton Marsalis? That may be like asking What happened to jazz? For twenty years the fates of Marsalis and jazz music have appeared inextricably intertwined." But at the age of 40 Marsalis finds himself without a recording contract, and many in jazz feel that "by leading jazz into the realm of unbending classicism, by applying the Great Man template to establish an iconography and by sanctifying a canon of their own choosing Marsalis and his adherents are said to have codified the music in a stifling orthodoxy and inhibited the revolutionary impulses that have always advanced jazz." The Atlantic 03/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 10:29 pm
No Money, No Resources, Stalled Renovation "After nearly three years and $17 million, Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark, city-owned Hollyhock House and the adjacent Barnsdall Park [in Los Angeles] may still remain closed to the public when the first of two renovation phases is finished late this spring, city officials said Wednesday. And there are currently no plans and no money for the second phase... More than 50 supporters of Hollyhock House, community leaders and citizens who value Barnsdall Park's neighborhood art programs, turned up for the progress report. Some could not contain their dismay at phase one's outcome: In addition to being late and over budget, the project will leave far less space for art classes." Los Angeles Times 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 6:15 am
Practically Speaking - How Libeskind Was Chosen for the WTC How was Daniel Libeskind's plan for the World Trade Center site chosen? The decision rested as much on politics, economics and engineering as on aethetics. "Almost immediately after the decision was announced, civic groups, downtown business leaders and others began debating the details that will be needed to put the plan into effect." The New York Times 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 6:03 am
- Learning Salesmanship In Denver Even before he submitted his design for Ground Zero, Daniel Libeskind was uniquely prepared for the necessity of selling oneself and one's art to American politicians and finicky citizens. It was less than three years ago that Libeskind beat out four other architects to become the winning designer of a $62.5 million addition to the Denver Art Museum. And while the media scrutiny and public interest in Denver was a fraction of that with which Libeskind would contend in New York, the architect's skill at presenting his work as a public boon was evident in the Denver competition. Denver Post 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 6:00 am
Scottish Government Helped Save Titian The Scottish government gave £2.5 million of the £11.6 million needed to buy the Scottish National Gallery's Titian acquired this week. "I am most impressed with the Scottish Executive and Mike Watson in particular for giving us £2.5 million at a difficult time. It’s a very enlightened thing for a government to do. A direct treasury grant in Scotland for something as rarefied and distinguished as this is a splendid thing." But the director of the National gallery warns that other art treasures are in dancer of being sold and taken out of the country. The Scotsman 02/27/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 6:52 pm
A Binding "Kiss" The most-talked-about work at this year's Tate Britain show of contemporary work is Cornelia Parker's "The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached" that binds up the lovers in Rodin's famous sculpture "The Kiss" in string. "It's my homage to two artists and a way of showing that love is more complicated than just a kiss. In fact, Dante's punishment of the illicit lovers was to condemn them to be entwined in an embrace for eternity. 'The Kiss' used to be considered indecent. People thought it should be covered up, which in effect is what I've done. I don't think I've hidden the eroticism. If you conceal things, they become more charged." London Evening Standard 02/27/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 6:28 pm
They Still Fund Orchestras In Northern Ireland While small North American orchestras seem to be shutting down left and right foir lack of funds, the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland has come into something of a public windfall. The ensemble, which has been struggling financially, will receive a £1.69 million grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to help in its efforts to secure more reliable "core funding." The grant is a 26% increase on what the orchestra had previously received from the council. Gramophone 02/27/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 5:29 am
Why Digital Downloading Is Bad For Music "The truth is that digital distribution is bad for artists for the same reason that it is bad for record companies (and good for fans): it makes too much music available. As content becomes increasingly ubiquitous, it loses value; just look at how few print publications are able to charge successfully for their online counterparts. While there are certainly some people who are willing to pay for digital music, few of them appear to be willing to pay that much for it." The Guardian (UK) 02/28/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 10:13 pm
A New Way To Hear/Present Concerts The way that we go to the opera, the theatre and the concert has hardly changed for centuries. The great majority of such attendance takes place in venues conceived on the model of churches. The performers do their thing at one end. We, the audience, sit silently in rows in the rest of the building and look at them doing it. This can be a difficult and even intimidating experience for those who are not used to it, especially in badly designed or unsuitable spaces. But you have only to attend a performance in a different kind of venue to see at once the possibilities for addressing the access problem in a different way." The London Symphony has a new venue. "It is not just a huge step forward for this most dynamic of Britain's orchestras, consolidating the LSO's role in the vanguard of orchestral music in London. It is also a step down a path that other performing arts organisations of all kinds will surely have to follow eventually - if they have the funding - of changing the terms on which orchestras meet their audiences." The Guardian (UK) 02/28/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 10:10 pm
Anonymous 4 Quits The popular early-music group Anonymous 4 have decided to pack it in after 17 years. "Since forming in 1986 in New York ‘as an experiment’ in response to the lack of opportunities for woman to sing early music repertoire, the group have gone on to achieve great commercial success, clocking up nearly 1000 concerts internationally and selling over 1 million discs." Gramophone 02/27/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 5:11 pm
Music: Electronic Inroads Almost all popular music uses some form of electronic instrumentation. Not in classical music though. "The future of innovation in music seems almost surely to be in digitally created music whose origin is either purely electronic or in imitation of acoustical sounds, "rather than string instruments growing extra strings or things like that." Christian Science Monitor 02/28/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 4:10 pm
Stravinsky's Mouthpiece? Robert Craft's relationship with Stravinsky draws fresh attention with the publication of a new Craft volume. Though the composer has been dead 30 years, the Craft continues to write of his friend, reviving old debates about where the composer ends and Craft begins..."The final Jamesian irony is that Robert Craft is able to write supremely well only as a ventriloquist, requiring no less than an authentic genius for his dummy." Weekly Standard 03/03/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 3:43 pm
Battling Cuts In St. Paul 1000 Minnesota artists and arts advocates descended on the state capitol in St. Paul this week to lobby legislators to amend Governor Tim Pawlenty's plan to cut arts funding 22%. The state faces a $4.23 billion deficit for the next biennium, and the governor has pledged not to raise taxes or cut K-12 education spending, making cuts in all other areas a near-certainty. The annual arts lobbying event had never before drawn more than 400 attendees, and legislators were largely receptive, if somewhat skeptical of their ability to spare the arts from the budget knife. St. Paul Pioneer Press 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 6:20 am
- Previously: NJ Arts Groups Organizing Protests Against Eliminating Arts Funding New Jersey arts groups are mobilizing protests in response to Governor James McGreevey's proposal to eliminate state arts funding. Arts supporters plan a big rally for May 15 - about the time the state legislature is expected to vote on the budget. "A vocal supporter of the arts in the past, McGreevey has expressed regret about the need for his proposal to slash arts funding. He has urged arts leaders to come up with alternatives." Trenton Times 02/25/03
This Is What Passes For Good News In Massachusetts That gale-force wind that just rushed up from the Northeast was the Massachusetts Cultural Council letting out its collective breath. The MCC, which saw its budget slashed 62% last year by acting governor Jane Swift, will apparently face no further cuts this fiscal year. Governor Mitt Romney's new budget restores none of last year's cuts to the MCC, but neither does it trim the council further. "The fact that Romney's education adviser Peter Nessen also chairs the MCC board likely bodes well for the organization." The MCC's annual budget now stands at a proposed $7.3 million. Boston Herald 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 5:47 am
Fred Rogers, 74 "For all its reassuring familiarity, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was a revolutionary idea at the outset and it remained a thing apart through all its decades on television. Others would also entertain the young or give them a leg up on their studies. But it was Fred Rogers, the composer, Protestant minister and student of behavior who ventured to deal head-on with the emotional life of children." Fred Rogers died yesterday at his Pittsburgh home, at the age of 74. The New York Times 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 5:41 am
Les Miz To Close On Broadway After 18 years, Les Miz is closing on Broadway. "On May 18 this blockbuster version of the Victor Hugo novel that helped define the mega-musical of the 1980's will go dark at the Imperial Theater, taking its place in the record books as the second longest-running Broadway show of all time, after 'Cats'." The New York Times 02/28/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 10:00 pm
Heavy Reading (How Do They Do It?) So you're a book editor and it's your job to read books. But there are so many of them. So you go through maybe ten a week - a good 400+ in a year... "So how do professional readers get through the required reading for their 'plum' jobs? It is a given that most people in the industry have to read (manuscripts) outside of work hours, in their own time. There's too much going on otherwise."
The Age (Melbourne) 02/28/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 6:13 pm
How Do You Make A Poet Laureate? (They Want To Know) "With their public profiles growing, the role of poets laureate is being called into question. In April the nation's first conference for state poets laureate will convene in Manchester, New Hampshire, where they will discuss poetry and their responsibilities as public representatives of their art. The goal of the conference is for poets laureate to meet each other, discuss the ambiguities and perceived responsibilities of being a state-endorsed poet, and explore what happens when poetry intersects with politics, education, and community." Poets & Writers 03/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 5:29 pm
Oprah To Start New Book Club A year after shutting down her popular TV book club, Oprah is starting a new book club - this time for classic books. "Winfrey plans to make a classic selection three to five times a year, in shows originating from a site connected with the book or the author." Yahoo! (Reuters) 02/27/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 5:03 pm
Media Dereg, Part II Back in 1996, the U.S. Congress passed a Telecommunications Act which allowed large media companies to hold multiple TV and radio stations in a single market, and to consolidate and merge their businesses as never before. Predictably, the large companies which took advantage of the legislation now control a high percentage of the nation's media outlets. Now, the FCC is considering a further loosening of restrictions on ownership, sparking a familiar debate between Big Media and, well, most everyone else. Wired 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 6:45 am
- Does Anyone Care What The Listeners Want? While the big media companies and TV networks may be thrilled at the possibility of greater media consolidation, the public is increasingly agitated at the overwhelming of local radio and TV institutions by bland, generic national "feeds" and indistinguishable formats. "Listeners are turning off the radio in huge numbers and the media companies don't care... because the only thing that matters to them is getting their share of whatever audience there is." Washington Post 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 6:44 am
Hollywood's African Exploits A successful African film director is taking Hollywood to task for the way it portrays his continent in the movies. Mahamat Saleh Haroun says he is tired of Hollywood studios coming to Africa simply to shoot nature scenes, lions, and actors "just dancing and laughing with big teeth." Haround also singles out Star Wars director George Lucas for his use of some Saharan locales, and for misleading local film enthusiasts into thinking that they might have Hollywood careers if they did drudge work on the Star Wars films. BBC 02/28/03
Posted: 02/28/2003 5:11 am
Buying Your Way In The Copyright Legislative Wars Hollywood loves Democrats. "For years, Hollywood has poured money into the Democrats' campaign coffers and been rewarded with indispensable assistance on the industry's crusade of the moment - squelching new technologies that allow the dissemination of digital content in ways Hollywood can't control. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, this eagerness to support Hollywood's technophobia is easy to understand. Payback has come in the form of several bills designed to clamp down on the free exchange of copyrighted music and movies, which entertainment companies deem the greatest threat to their future well-being..." Washington Monthly 02/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 5:34 pm
Violently Yours - Movies Up The Gore Quotient "Horror films have been spooking audiences since Bela Lugosi made his big-screen debut in 1917, but critics say the current roster of films takes gore to a whole new level. They point to a range of possible causes - from ever more realistic special effects to a ratings system that is more lenient on violence than sex. Also, increasingly graphic violence on network TV may be causing filmmakers to up the shock quotient in an effort to get people to buy tickets for what they can see for free at home." Christian Science Monitor 02/28/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 4:56 pm
Hollywood Sues DVD Copier Hollywood movie studios are in court suing the maker of a software program that makes backup copies of DVDs. The company being sued says it's really not about piracy at all. "This is about whether or not it is legal for consumers to make backup copies of DVDs they own. Either it is or it isn't. We say it is legal for consumers to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes."
Dallas Morning News 02/27/03
Posted: 02/27/2003 3:05 pm
